Hello all you avid bloggers! Sorry that we take so long to get you updated but life has been plenty busy for us lately. Firstly I finished up the fall semester at UNLV with a 3.25 gpa for the semester so I am pretty pleased considering that was while working full time and taking a full load. Kudos to me. Also, Kari is currently enjoying her "Holiday" Break from her little monsters and was aided by a suprise snow day last Thursday when we had record snows in Las Vegas. A whopping 4 inches fell and closed us down for a night. Of course it is Vegas and the next day was sunny and beautiful. But Kari still got to stay home although she woke up in a panic thinking she had to go to work when she didnt have to. As the Christmas season fell upon us I have come to learn or relearn some principles behind Christmas and have really enjoyed this Christmas season more than usual. Although I started the season with a theme song of "Skipping Christmas" I have really come to embrace the season. We we fortunate enough to get time off work and things worked out so we could head back east to Minnesnowta. More commonly known as Minnesota which is where Kari's family is. Due to the impending birth of McKenna or Kaleb we are not able to go on the Kirchmann family vacation to Cancun so we turned those savings towards our Christmas flight. With this early departure from Las Vegas we got to extend Christmas by celebrating with my family before we left and then having Christmas with the in-laws. It was really fun to celebrate my first white Christmas that I can remember. Being Santa's helper was also a first for me and one that I will remember for a long time. I think the best part of it being so cold was that we spent a lot of time inside together just enjoying each others company. I had the privilage of learning more about my new family, which is something that I really enjoyed. I can now say that I have officially sat through a swim meet and boy did I pick a doosy. It was an invintational ( not a misspelling I promise =) ) for Topher with 10 teams competeing so instead of just 2 hours it was closer to 5. I think even I lost a couple of pounds in the sweat box of a pool viewing area. Right now we are sitting in the Denver airport waiting for our delayed flight to Las Vegas. All I can do is sit and laugh because too many times I was on the other side of the podium telling people that the flight is delayed because the plane hasnt gotten here yet. It just means that I am going to have little sleep and a long day at work tomorrow.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

As the Christmas season decends upon us it means many different things to many different people. Right now it means that Finals week is upon me once again and I realize how much I was supposed to learn this semester that I have not yet done or feel confused more. Another thing that it means is family. I am pleased to say that I am dreaming indeed of a white Christmas as this year we will be traveling to the snow filled (hopefully) Minnesota to be with Kari's family there. I am really looking forward to this trip for a number of reasons.

I love Christmas time as we pull out the lights and tree and all the many decorations that remind us of our Savior. We had the pleasure of watching the First Presidency devotional tonight and it is a great way to start December. Also, we were released from our calling as Primary teachers this week and Kari was called as the Mia Maid adviser. I have yet to be called and will be enjoying my time as class member. It is good to have adult conversation again in sunday school. We have a new teacher for Gospel doctrine that is really good I like his personality.

My work has been interesting as I was asked to be a contigent supervisor which means that when it gets busy or they are short handed I am asked to fill in. It has made me learn and make sure that I know exactly what it is that I am doing at work and does not allow me to just float along which is good as I need a challange to keep motivated. I know that there has been a lot of talk lately in the media about Citi but I think that it is not going to affect us here because it is a lot of the other bussiness that citigroup owns that are getting cut and sold off. Credit cards is still very profitable so I think I am safe.

Kari is having a good time with her class although they are making it rough with all the budget cuts that are happening here in Nevada it looks bleak for those that depend on the state budget. There has even been talk of increasing college tuition 25% for the spring semester which will be rough for a lot of students.

Well not to be too negative it is Christmas time which is always a cause of Joy.

I promise that we will get some pictures up it is just a little late this week.